Your victories are YOUR victories, Dear One.
Celebrate them, each and every one, no matter how big or small.
Don’t compare them to someone else’s first; before you decide if they are worthy of celebration.
Especially not to those who don’t share your values; to those who may not find valuable those things that YOUR heart values most.
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You are feeling a strong desire for change, Dear One; how you look, how you feel, what you do, how you live, what you have, who you love, who loves you, and so on.
And you are uncomfortable with it. You are unsure of how exactly you want to change, and what exactly you want to change into, and how you are going to make all of this change happen. And you want to make the discomfort stop.
But to relieve the stress, the unease that accompanies not knowing, the frustration that comes with not having, the self-loathing that comes with feeling unworthy or undeserving or unprepared, the answer is not to stop wanting, to stop trying, to stop moving forward in an effort to avoid confronting the distress.
The answer is in fact, to do the exact opposite of that. The answer is to embrace the change, and embrace the lack of clarity, discomfort, uncertainty, and insecurity that comes with it.
Because stopping, turning back, giving up, or running away is never going to get you to where you want to go. But moving forward just might.
And the truth is that both directions, forwards and back, hold the potential for discomfort, equally. It is unavoidable, nearly impossible to escape the feeling all together.
So the question that you really want to be asking, when it comes to dealing with the discomfort of change, Dear One, is not, How can you avoid it or make it stop, but…. Do you want to confront, deal with, and work through the discomfort while you are moving forwards, backwards, or standing still?
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Don’t make NOW the moment that you gave up, ear One. Don’t make it the moment that you failed, or the moment that it didn’t work either. Don’t make it the moment that you didn’t get it done, that you didn’t measure up, that you couldn’t make it work, or that you realized that you were just too far off course to ever get yourself over to the place where you really want to be.
Make NOW an empowered moment, an powerful moment, a triumphant moment.
Make NOW the moment that you made up your mind to turn it all around instead.
A prayer is a peaceful promise to yourself, Dear One – a promise to allow that which you are needing, wanting, asking for, into your life.
A prayer is a preparation. It is a ritual to help get you ready to receive, to help you shift into a mindset of receiving.
That is why prayers of gratitude are the most powerful.
You can choose to trust, Dear One, or you can choose to try.
Both will work. Both will serve you. Both will move you in the direction that you want to go.
The biggest difference between the two, Dear One, is the amount of energy that you will have to exert to get there, and the amount of time it will take.
Why do you so often feel as if you are in a competition, Dear One?
Because you are, because you are choosing to see them as competitors, and that is not is necessarily a bad thing.
Competition can push you. It can motivate you and inspire you, and drive you to work harder, try harder, and do your best to push yourself beyond not just how far you believe you can go, but beyond how far you believe they can go too. Competition can be a great way to get you to move beyond your own limitations, crash through self-imposed boundaries, and discover exactly what you are made of, what you are capable of.
The fact that you feel as if you are in a competition is not the problem, Dear One. The fact that you think that your ranking at the finish line matters, is.
Some days you will be confident, and some days you will be insecure. Some days you will feel pretty and some days you will feel plain. Some days you will be adored, and some days you will be lonely. Some days you will be creative, and some days you will be dull. Some days you will be kind, and some days you will be cruel. Some days you will do no wrong, and some days you will do no right.
But know this, Dear One, that in this life that is full of contradictions, full of realities that are true one minute and not true the next, one thing will never stop being true, and that is that you will never stop being powerful.
You can never stop being powerful. It is who and what you are.
Now you can choose to use your power to create things that you want in this life, or you can choose to use your power to create things that you despise, or fear, or secretly think that you deserve. But either way, Dear One, no matter what, you can never stop being powerful, you can never give your power away, or run out of it, or lose it, or have it taken from you, ever.
You can be tricked into thinking it is gone, you can trick yourself into thinking it is gone too. But regardless of how you feel, what you have been told, or what you believe, you will still be powerful, you will still have the power that creates worlds running through you, at your fingertips, at all times, to do with as you please. You will still be the one with the pen in your hand, writing your story, creating your world, with every thought that you think, word that you speak, action that you take, and belief that you hold in your heart.
Are you any less spiritual, Dear One, when you skip yoga, don’t meditate, pass on the weekly service, don’t make the donation, cut in line, think bad thoughts, do not want to help, or forget to give up your seat on the subway, bus, ferry, or train to the passenger that is older, weaker, needier, or more pregnant than you?
Absolutely, not.
You are a spiritual being no matter what you do.
But it is your belief, your consciousness, your level of acceptance of the fact that you are a part of something larger than yourself, that you are one part of a whole, that you are divine, and are at once a reflection of the world around you as well as the creator of it, that determines your level of awareness of this fact.
You can choose to be a spiritually aware person, Dear One, or you can choose to be a spiritually unaware person. And that choice can change from day to day. But you cannot, not matter what, regardless of what you do, think, say, or believe, choose to be anything other than divine at all times.
Remember, Dear One, an emotion is something that you feel, it is not something that defines who you are.
Pay attention, Dear One.
Take notice of what happens to your thoughts and your actions when you remember to remain fully present in all that you do.